R. Pumpelly on Japanese Alloys. 43 
I will present one or two facts which may have some bearing 
upon this point. Iam indebted to the court fe ROK, 
Randolph, qmenre of the Carlisle Oil Co., (oF a Fetord of 
a well 860 feet deep bored by him near Petroleum, West Va. 
This well is near the center of the strata marked C in fig. 2. 
The top of the well is in the lower portion of the Coal-measures. 
At 170 feet below the surface, Mr. R. struck a series of sand- 
rocks which continued 419 feet. I cannot suppose otherwise 
265 feet of what the record terms a “gray shale with muc 
soot.” The position of these shales would make them the 
equivalents of the black shales of the Ohio Devonian formation, 
which in Ohio are 250 feet thick. rare evidently contain some 
light carbonaceous matter in the “s wai ut the record calls 
of the well. Now have these deep shales, aes 600 feet down 
and situated within the double dislocation of strata already de- 
scribed, lost a part of their bitamen and been changed from 
black to gray? Unfortunately, I have not been able to obtain 
any sample of the borings in this shale, they, with the “soot,” 
having been washed away. Mr. R. is boring his a still 
deeper. Should he soon enter the equivalents of the Cliff lime- 
stone of the Ohio Reports, I shall then feel assured that he has 
already passed through the exact equivalents of the Ohio Black 
Shales and mem them “gray.” Of course, such facts are not 
conclusive as to any positive loss of bitumen, but ‘they are not 
without sijmiicenans Should I find many similar cases. where 
strata, which are highly bituminous at their outcrop, are found 
to contain little bitumen at great depths, and at the same time, 
the rocks above these buri ciate containing in their fissures 
much oil, I think ‘hie inference, that the oil was derived from 
the bituminous shales, not unwarranted, 
Marietta, O., March 20, 1866. 
Art, V.— Notes on ee Alloys ; by RAPHAEL PUMPELLY. 
the many tore in use among the pete: are based on in- 
formation obtained from native metal-workers. bi a few in- 
stances, as with the shakdo and gin shi bu _ the process of | 
manufacture, generally hidden, was shown 
o, an interesting alloy of copper ea gold, the wed ae 
metal in proportions varying between 1 p. ¢, and 10p.c. Ob 
